As computers have become progressively more common in the workplace, the tasks associated with organizational management have become progressively more automated. One known computer program for organizational management is available under the tradename SAP (Systems, Applications and Products in Data Processing), which is commercially available from SAP AG in Germany. The SAP program is designed to provide support for all aspects of what an organization may wish to do.
One aspect of the capabilities of the SAP software relates to support for human resources. In this regard, the SAP software has a personnel administration module, which handles matters specific to a particular employee, such as the employee's pay rate, implementation of a raise, implementation of a bonus, vacation time, sick time, and so forth. The SAP software also has a personnel development module, which handles matters such as an inventory of employee skills, an inventory of employee training and education, work force planning functions, and organizational management issues such as maintenance of the organizational hierarchy. Maintenance of the organizational hierarchy may include matters such as a permanent internal transfer of an employee, a temporary internal assignment or transfer of an employee, a change in the job code for a position, or filling a position from a source external to the organization. The SAP software also includes a workflow engine, which is capable of automatically obtaining the necessary approvals for a proposed change.
While the existing SAP program has been generally adequate for its intended purposes, it has not been satisfactory in all respects. For example, the personnel administration module is capable of interacting with the workflow engine in order to initiate or trigger a workflow. However, the personnel development module does not have the capability to interact with the workflow engine or trigger a workflow.
As one specific example, in the case of a permanent transfer of an employee from one position to another within the organization, the necessary approvals must all be obtained in advance in a manner external to the SAP program, for example by circulating a memo or other paper document. Then, after the necessary approvals have all been manually obtained, the proposed change can be manually implemented through the personnel development module, by one or more selected employees who have the authority to implement changes. However, in view of the progressive trend toward distributed processing, where the majority of employees have a computer, and where computers in geographically remote portions of an organization are typically linked, it is desirable for the approval process to be automated. A further consideration is that, even in the personnel administration module, each proposed change must be submitted immediately for implementation, which is not always desirable or convenient.